


The Doctor's Wife

by americanhoney913



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Episode: s06e04 The Doctor's Wife, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-07
Updated: 2014-04-07
Packaged: 2018-01-18 12:48:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1429159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/americanhoney913/pseuds/americanhoney913
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is what I think should have happened during the episode 'The Doctor's Wife'. Instead of Idris, I thought it would have been interesting to have one of Clara's echoes be the vessel for the TARDIS Matrix. I do not own the episode, but the idea is my own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Meet Oswald

**Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who nor do I own this episode. This is just what I thought should have happened once I found out Clara had lived and died to save the Doctor many times. Most of this is from the transcript which I found online. I am just trying to write what I thought would happen, not trying to steal anything.**

Right outside the edge of the universe, there was a tiny planet. It glowed a soft sickly green and looked like it was just a giant compilation of trash. Inside one of the tunnels, an old woman with worn clothes that looks like they've been sown together haphazardly, leads a smaller, much younger woman to the central area of the tunnel. The sides of the tunnel are full of clutter and glow the same green as the rest of the planet. Smoke rises from some pipes sticking out of the wall at odd angles.

They stop in a large cavern where a man is waiting. He is a strange hunched over man with eyes that look much younger than he seems to be. "Will it be me, Uncle?" the young woman asks is a shaky voice, clutching at the skirts of her torn scarlet red Victorian dress. Her once bright brown eyes are worn and scared as she looks between the man and woman.

The man nods, his lips pulled back into a permanent sneer. "Yes, it's going to be you. I only with I could go in your place,Oswald." He tilts his head to the side, pretending to think for a second. "Nah, I don't, cause it's really going to hurt."

An alien looking creature steps out from the shadows. It is an Ood. The Ood has strange glowing green eyes, unlike a normal ood, which has normal eyes... for an Ood. It does not speak, only grips Clara's arm tightly.

"It's starting," Oswald whispers, her voice cracking with fear. The Ood takes Oswald and leads her up the two steps to a small platform. Underneath the platform is a vent, where a glowing green light is emanating. "What will happen?"

The raggedy woman's eyebrows scrunch together as she tries to figure out how to say it. "Oh. Um, er," she mouths words a few times before she speaks again, "Nephew will drain your mind and your soul from your body and leave your body empty."

The strange ood places a hand on either side of her head, looking like he's about to telepathically communicate with her.

"I'm scared!" Oswald cries, her eyes fluttering closed at the slight pressure. Smoke begins to rise from the grate and the brunette falls to her knees, her breathing becoming harder and harder.

"I expect so, dear," the raggedy woman nods. "But soon you'll have a new soul." She smiles in an extremely creepy way. "There'll be a Time Lord coming!"

A few hours later, Oswald feels a new kind of energy fill her. It makes her mind burn but, since there is no other entity inside the empty shell of her body except a few particles that remember who she used to be, it doesn't hurt as much as it should. The young woman sits up with a gasp, her eyes going wide. They glow a soft golden color and golden particles stream out of her open mouth. Each time Oswald breathes, a strange grating or whooshing noise comes out of her mouth.

The pathetic beings that have made her this way watch in fear as she raises her hands, watching as they light up the interior room with a golden glow. Never has she felt more powerful in all of her life.

* * *

Oswald gasps, her eyes fluttering open when she feels the presence of something akin to warmth caressing her mind. She feels as if a lost loved one has come back to her. Her mind has melded with the other inside her, the one that is much more powerful than the lowly beings that guard her.

When she tries to stand, she wobbles a few times before she gets her bearings. Auntie and Uncle follow behind her as she breaks out into a run, her mind bursting with so much happiness that she feels like humming. But she keeps the humming inside, at least for now.

"Thief!" she cries when she enters the largest room on the desolate planet. She notices the red head and the man with the big nose right off, but she feels no connection to them. Neither of them are her Thief. No, that tittle is for the man standing in the middle of them, looking around in what she might call concern. "Thief!" Oswald calls again, her mind beginning to hum happily, reaching out for the other man. The one in the tacky bow tie and the tweed jacket. "You're my Thief!"

She can feel the presence of Auntie and Uncle behind her, calling out for her to stop. They cannot halt her, however, because she is much stronger now. They have given her the power over the knowledge of the universe, of space and time. Oswald remembers a time when she had another body, a blond with hazel eyes. The human her heart called Bad Wolf is gone now, but the shadow of her presence remains forever within her heart.

"She's dangerous," Auntie warns, making the Doctor step back. Oswald disregards the words and throws herself at the Doctor. "Guard yourself!" The man with the big nose and the red head step back, but the Doctor stands his ground. Just like she'd expect from her him. Because he was hers… she'd stolen him.

"Look at you!" Oswald beams, reminding herself of a kid in a candy store or, more accurately, the Doctor when he discovers something new within her infinite walls. "Goodbye!" She frowns. "No, not goodbye," she purses her lips, "what's the other one?" Her mind surges forward, wishing to be as close to her Thief as possible. She's seen him close to other girls, like Bad Wolf, when he pressed his lips to hers. So she did just that. He flailed and waved his arms around in patters she could trace in her mind and she smiled.

"Watch out!" Uncle halfheartedly says, chuckling. "Careful, keep back from her!" His warning a little late seeing as the woman's already attached to the Doctor by the mouth. The man in tweed pushes the strange woman off of him, even as she struggles.

Too soon, what she knows is a kiss ends when hands pull her back from her Thief. Uncle smirks and she wants to smash him into little bits for keeping her away from her Thief. She pouts and struggles to reach for him again. Auntie and Uncle each keep a tight grip on her arms, but she continues to wiggle in their grasp.

"Welcome, strangers, lovely," Uncle bows from his place holding Oswald from going after the Doctor again. "Sorry about the mad person." He gestures with his head back at the young woman.

"Why am I a thief?" the Doctor asked, looking contemplative. "What have I stolen?"

Oswald giggled, her eyes lighting up like a firecracker. But the gold stayed below, knowing she cannot show him yet what is inside her. "Me," Oswald pressed a hand to her chest. "You're going to steal me." She blinks, looking confused again. "No," she shakes her head, "you have stolen me." She shakes her head again, hating these tenses and strange speech. "You are stealing me." She smiles at the Doctor's confusion and even his current companions' confusion. She moves her mouth for a few seconds before she smiles at the Doctor. "Tenses are difficult, aren't they?"

"Oh, we are sorry, my dove," Auntie apologizes. "She's off her 'ead. They call me Auntie." She vigorous shakes the Doctor's hand, making his arm wobble up and down.

"I'm Uncle," the short strange man smiled, but in a creepy way. "I'm everybody's uncle." He roughly gripped Oswald's arm tightly. "Just keep back from this one," he points at Oswald, "she bites."

Oswald's eyes widen and she giggles insanely. "I do?" She finally gets out of Auntie and Uncle's hold and runs over to the Doctor. "Excellent." She reaches the man in tweed and bites into his neck. She has to jump up to reach it, but the golden haze in her mind and the magical energy flowing through her body helps her reach out to her Thief.

"Ow!" the Doctor cries, struggling against Oswald. "No, ow, ow!" Auntie and Uncle manage to pull Oswald off of the struggling man.

The red head and the man with the big nose shrink back from her and she grins. "Oh, biting's excellent!" Oswald cries happily, spinning around. "It's like kissing," Uncle pulls her away but she reaches out for her Thief, "only there's a winner!" The red head laughed at her joke, even though she's completely serious.

"Sorry," Uncle apologizes again. "She's doolally."

Oswald shakes her head, glaring at Uncle. "No, I'm not doolally," she shakes her head. "I'm... I'm...It's on the tip of my tongue." She sticks her tongue out before she turns her confused frown into a smile. "And and I've just had a new idea about kissing." She opens her arms and races after her thief, her Doctor. "Come here, you!" She chases after her Doctor.

"Oswald!" Auntie cried. "No, no!"

The Doctor hid behind his companions, the red head and the nose. Her Thief looks scared and she stops, watching him with worried eyes. "Oh, but now you're angry," her eyes turned sad. "No, you're not." She shakes her head. "You will be angry. The little boxes will make you angry." She smiles at him, although her mind is still jumping from place to place.

"Sorry?" the Doctor blinks. "The little what?" He tries to understand him. "Boxes?"

Oswald cackles madly. "Your chin is hilarious!" She pinches the Doctor's chin. Suddenly, she starts and looks at the big nosed man, who she realizes has a name... Rory Williams, the Last Centurion. "It means the smell of dust after rain," she tells him before she turns back to the Doctor.

"What does?" Rory asks, looking at her in confusion. She watches him and smiles.

"Petrichor," she replies.

"But I didn't ask."

"Not yet," Oswald replies, "but you will."

Rory, Amy, and the Doctor share a look before Auntie cries out, "No, Oswald, I think you should have a rest." She takes a step to hold onto Oswald's arm.

"Yes, yes, good idea!" Her eyes light up before she spins around. "I'll just see if there's an off switch," she mumbles to herself before she falls into a chair and everything goes dark. Blackness is all she knows.

* * *

**A rewrite of the episode The Doctor's Wife. Instead of Idris, I've decided that it would have been interesting if Clara was the vessel for the TARDIS. I own none of the spoken lines in this story. Please review and tell me what you think.**

**One of the reasons I think Clara's** **echo would have been there is because she's already been though his time stream, so she can survive the Matrix. And the chin comment just got me.**

**P.S. This story only includes moments when Idris is present. Most of the scenes with just Amy and Rory or the Doctor and the other House mates are not going to be included. Because most of the story is in Clara's 3rd person POV.**


	2. You're the TARDIS? My TARDIS?

**Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who nor do I own this episode. This is just what I thought should have happened once I found out Clara had lived and died to save the Doctor many times. Most of this is from the transcript which I found online. I am just trying to write what I thought would happen, not trying to steal anything.**

Oswald comes to inside a small cage. It feels strange for her to be locked up in this cell inside this bigger on the inside human body. She breathes deeply, knowing that this body won't last her long and she must control her functions if she is to survive until the allotted time. Crossing her legs, Oswald calmly waits for her Thief to find her.

She giggles as she watches the brown hair hanging from her head sway in the nonexistent breeze. She's never  _had_ hair before, so it is a wonder that she's found a vessel with such beautiful hair. Breathing in and out, she waits.

She can hear him coming down the path, stomping along and she knows that he's still angry at finding the little boxes... just like she knew he would be. She keeps her eyes closed, focusing in on him by her inner sight alone.

"How did you know about the boxes?" the Doctor asks, pacing back and forth before her on the other side of the cage. "You said they'd make me angry. How did you know?" His face is pinched up and he looks extremely confused.

"Ah, it's my Thief," Oswald finally opens her eyes and smiles at the bow tie wearing man. He is giving her strange looks, but that is to be expected when he's never seen her like this before.

"Who are you?" her Thief asks, as if he doesn't know.

"It's about time," Oswald rolls her eyes and scoots closer to the bars of the cage. She examines him, her eyes lighting up like firecrackers as she finally gives her Thief a good proper look, realizing that now he can actually speak to her and see her. Because, at least for now, she's actually properly real.

"Who are you?" the Doctor asks still looking confused. It makes her sad to think that he does 't recognize her, just because she can look him in the eye and speak to him.

"Do you not know me?" her eyes fall for a moment before she's standing up, trying to be eye-level with him. But her new casing is just too small and she must look up to meet his eye. "Just because they put me in here?"

"They said you were dangerous," he tries to reason with her vessel, not knowing the power that's inside.

"Not the cage, stupid," she smacks the bars of the cage, making the Doctor jump, "in here." Oswald puts a hand on either side of her face, swishing her cheeks together and puling on her pretty brown hair. 'Skin is nice to have,' she thinks, a smile on her face. "They put me in here." She tries to stress that there is something else inside her, other than just the pretty, impossible girl she inhabits. One of the echoes of the girl she created back when she had a different vessel, a pretty blond with pretty eyes. "I'm the..." She bites her lip. "Oh, what do you call me?" Oswald snaps her fingers before her eyes flash gold for a moment. "We travel. I go..." She opens her mouth and breathes, pushing out the sound she makes because her Thief never puts on the breaks.

She watches as her Thief's eyes almost fall out of his head. "The TARDIS?" he breathes.

"Time And Relative Dimension In Space," Oswald nods, acknowledging the word she couldn't find before. "Yes, that's it. Names are funny." She stands up and waves to the Doctor, a huge smile on her small face. "It's me! I'm the TARDIS."

"No, you're not!" the Doctor shakes his head, even though she's made it pretty clear that she is. Who else could have made the noise she makes when he lands her. It is the sound of hope. "You're a bitey, mad lady. The TARDIS is up and downy stuff in a big blue box." He gestures with his hands as he tends to do and the young woman smiles.

"Yes, that's me," she nods again, wanting to reach out and smack him, because she can do that now. She can smack him when he's being stupid, like now, and she can cradle his face when he's hurt or sad. But this body won't last so she wants to spend as much time as she can with him. "A type 40 TARDIS. I was already a museum piece, when you were young," her brown eyes go misty, "and the first time you touched my console you said..."

"I said you were the most beautiful thing I had ever known," the Doctor breathes, his eyes also getting wet.

"And then you stole me," she leans forward, looking into his bright green eyes, "and I stole you."

"I borrowed you," the Doctor corrects her, rubbing a hand down his face. He still looks a little stiff, as if he doesn't realize that she's telling the truth.

"Borrowing implies the eventual intention to return the thing that was taken," she repeats the dictionary definition that is stored in her Matrix somewhere. "What makes you think I would ever give you back?" She crosses her arms, a small smirk on her face.

"You're the TARDIS?" Oswald realizes that her Thief is still hesitant and she giggles, leaning against the side of the cage, her hand pressed against her cocked him.

"Yes," she nods.

"My TARDIS?"

"My Doctor." She presses a hand to his face and marvels at the idea that she can actually touch him now. She hasn't touched him since she joined bodies with Rose Tyler, one of her favorite companions. "Oh! We have now reached the point in the conversation where you open the lock." She stands away from the door and motions to the lock on the door.

The Doctor uses the sonic on the lock and Oswald steps out, stretching her temporary legs.. She studies the Doctor's face, an interested, curious smile on her own.

"Are all people like this?" she asked, gesturing to her body. Her small casing that could hold so much.

"Like what?" the Doctor blinked, looking startled. She knew that he still couldn't believe that his TARDIS was standing before him in the body of a petite woman.

"So much bigger on the inside?" She made gestures similar to those of her Thief's. "I'm..." Oswald repeatedly snapped her fingers, trying to figure it out. "Oh, what is that word? It's so big, so complicated." She sniffled. "It's so sad."

"But why?" The Doctor questioned his sentient ship. "Why pull the living soul from a TARDIS and pop it in a tiny human head?" He shook his own head as Oswald walked closer to him, hand reaching out to gently touch the tweed of his jacket. "What does it want you for?"

"It doesn't want me," Oswald comments offhandedly, lifting onto her toes to sniff the Doctor's neck, where there are still light teeth marks from where she bit him earlier... later... before...

"How do you know?" her Thief asks stiffly as she presses her nose to the tweed jacket and sniffs.

He smell of machine and grease and Time. She loves the smell of her Thief and she presses her nose further into the jacket. "House eats TARDISes," she comments sadly as she pulls away from the Doctor.

"House what?" the Doctor blinks, his mouth dropping. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know," Oswald shrugs, a small smile on her face. "It's something I heard you say."

"When?" the Doctor's head cocks to the side.

"In the future," Oswald shrugs, reaching up to fiddle with her Thief's bow tie.

"House eats TARDISes?" the Doctor asks, his brow furrowing.

"There you go," Oswald points her finger at him before she puts a finger on the Doctor's lips and tilts her head to the side. "What are fish fingers?"

The Doctor's voice was muffled behind Oswald's hand. "When do I say that?" he asked, struggling to move his lips. Oh her funny Thief.

"Any second," she answers as she pulls her finger away, a small smile on her face. Why does her Thief not understand that she can see all of space and time, of course she can see what he's going to say. Hasn't he learned anything in his travels with her throughout time an space.

"Of course!" The Doctor claps his hands together and runs a hand through his hair as he finally puts it together. "House feeds on rift energy and TARDISes are bursting with it." He shakes his head and his brows furrow again. "And not raw. All lovely and cooked, processed food…" He rubs his tummy. "Mmm, fish fingers."

"Do fish have fingers?" Oswald asks, her nose scrunched up in confusion.

The Doctor blinks, trying not to think of how the body his TARDIS inhabits is actually quite cute. He shakes his head to clear his thoughts before his brain begins to fire off answers. "But you can't eat a TARDIS, it would destroy you." He raps his fist against his head, a move that makes her smile because he does it so much when he's working on something inside her mainframe. "Unless, unless...

"Unless you deleted the TARDIS matrix first," Oswald supplies, her eyes sparkling golden for a moment. She's always wanted to be a part of one of the Doctor's famous adventures. Besides being the getaway vehicle, all she really did was sit and wait for her Thief to come back with his companion.

"So it deleted you," the Doctor chuckles, a small smile on his face.

"But House just can't delete a TARDIS' consciousness," Oswald presents the argument, "that would blow a hole in the universe. He pulls out the matrix, sticks it in a living receptacle and feeds off the remaining Artron energy." She giggles and points at the green-eyed man. "You were about to say all that. I don't suppose you have to now."

The Doctor pulls out Amy's phone. "I sent Amy and Rory in there," he tells Oswald as if she doesn't already know. "They'll be eaten. Amy! Amy! Rory, get the hell out of there!" Oswald watches as he runs off though the tunnels before she rolls her eyes. She picks up her heavy red skirts and runs after him. Eventually, she finds herself lost within the maze of the now empty planet and she felt herself slowing down as her human body could't stand the excess amount of running. She found Auntie and Uncle sitting on one of the crates and sat down near them in a chair.

* * *

The Doctor finds Oswald sitting down, slumped over in one of the chairs. Auntie and Uncle are there as well, both looking as if they have been drained.

"It's gone!" the green-eyed man shouts as he storms into the area.

"Eaten?" Oswald asks, her innocent eyes wide and almost golden.

"No, it left," he tells her; "not eaten, hi-jacked." He scratches his chin. "But why?"

"It's time for us both to go," Auntie sighs, "and keep together." She shuffles in her seat and her shoulder's slump as if she is accepting her fate. Uncle grumbles at her side.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," the Doctor is back to waving his arms. "Go? What do you mean go?" Oswald thinks his confused pout is absolutely adorable. "Where are you going?"

"Well, we're dying, my love," Auntie answers with another sigh. "It's time for Auntie and Uncle to pop off."

"I'm against it," Uncle grumbles and crosses his mismatched arms.

"It's your fault, isn't it, sweets?" Oswald fiddles with brown strands of hair that hang past her face. A light blush covers her cheek. "Cos you told House it was the last TARDIS. House can't feed on them if there's none more coming, can he?" Auntie sounds chastising, but Oswald doesn't care. She's much more powerful now without House and she doesn't take chastisement from any mere mortal.

"So now he's off to your universe to find more TARDISes," Uncle informs them.

"It won't," the Doctor answers stiffly and Oswald wants to wrap her arms around her Thief.

"Oh, it will think of something," Auntie chuckles, but it peters off into a cough. Auntie falls over with a groan and the Doctor rushes to check for a pulse. Oswald stands, startled at the sight.

"Actually, I feel fine," the strange, lopsided man stands for a moment before he wobbles and falls to the ground.

"Not dead," he growls in frustration. "You can't just die!" His voice is rising higher and higher in frustration.

"We need to go to where I landed, Doctor," Oswald calls out to him, trying to get him to calm down. She grabs his arm. "Quickly."

"Why?!" the Doctor shouts, still seething about the fact that his familiar blue police box is gone and he has no way to get off of this damned planet.

"Because we are there in three minutes," Oswald tells him, pulling even harder on his arm. "We need to go now! She tries to run, but stops in pain. "Ow!" She cries out as she wobbles. "Roughly, how long do these bodies last?" she asks her Thief.

The Doctor scans her with his sonic screwdriver. The new one she remembers making for him. "You're dying," he tells her sadly, breathing out loudly.

Yes, of course I'm dying," she hisses, grabbing the sonic from his hand. "I don't belong in a flesh body. I could blow the casing in no time." She pauses, noticing his face and his pout and his familiar big sad eyes. "No, stop it, don't get emotional." She blinks. "That's what the orangey girl says." She smacks him lightly on the cheek. "You're the Doctor. Focus." Oswald holds the sonic out for him... but only after poking him with it a few times..

"On what? How? I'm a madman with a box, without a box!" He grabs the sonic from Oswald with a scowl. "I'm stuck down the plughole at the end of the universe on a stupid old junkyard!" His face instantly brightens. "Oh."

"Oh, what?" Oswald smiles as her Thief beings to work out what to do in his mind and she can see it through the connection they have.

"No, I'm not," the Doctor's grin widens.

"Not what?" Oswald wants him to say it out loud, a small smile on her own face.

"Cause it's not a junkyard," he looks as if he is about to giggle. She rolls her eyes at him and he gestures to the area around them. "Don't you see? It's not a junkyard."

"What is it, then?" Oswald crosses her arms, glaring at the Doctor.

"It's a TARDIS junkyard!" He bounces about, even though Oswald's temporary heart squeezes inside her chest at the thought. She watches as the Doctor heads for exit. "Come on." He pauses and turns back to look at Oswald. "Ooh, sorry, do you have a name?"

Oswald chuckles, rolling her eyes playfully. "700 years, finally he asks," she snarks.

"But what do I call you?" his brow furrows as he looking at her in confusion.

"I think you call me..." she pauses, scanning though her memory database to find the word, "Sexy."

The Doctor flushes, looking around even though Oswald cannot feel any other life forces around. "Only when we're alone!" If possible, his face gets even redder.

"We  _are_  alone," Oswald smiles at him, putting a hand on his arm.

"Come on then," the Doctor smiles as Oswald giggles again, " _Sexy_." He stresses the name. The Doctor takes Oswald by the hand and they run out.

**A second chapter out already? Wow, I am good. That's probably because the script's already been written. Please don't forget to review and tell me what you think. I really do want to know.**


	3. Look at Us, Talking!

**Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who nor do I own this episode. This is just what I thought should have happened once I found out Clara had lived and died to save the Doctor many times. Most of this is from the transcript which I found online. I am just trying to write what I thought would happen, not trying to steal anything.**

The Doctor runs across the surface of the planet, scanning with the sonic screwdriver. Oswald follows him, breathing hard to catch up. She curses the small body she's been put into, but she hasn't missed the looks her Thief has been giving the body. Almost. Longing or lustful looks and it makes her feel strange. This feeling was never programmed into her hardware, so she cannot identify it. They climb atop a mound and look down on a collection of varied ships. Even before she can realize what they are, another strange feeling hits her. It is one she is familiar with feeling though the deep connection she has with the Doctor, but this time it is deeper because there is a single difference. This time, it is her own.

"A valley of half-eaten TARDISes," he gestures to the wrecked ships below them. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" His eyes are bright with excitement, already having an idea of how he can get himself out of this mess..

"I'm thinking that all of my sisters are dead," Oswald whispers, a strange watery subsance coming to rest at the corner of her eye. "That they were devoured, and that we are looking at their corpses."

She turns to the Doctor when he lets out a loud breath. "Ah. Sorry. No," he shakes his head, eyes looking at her sadly, "I wasn't thinking that."

"No," Oswald chuckles. "You were thinking you could build a working TARDIS console out of broken remnants of a hundred different models." She smiles, her temporary heart hammering inside her chest. "And you don't care that it's impossible." The word  _impossible_ strikes a cord within the body of Oswald, making her think of a golden vortex and dropping... so so far. And dying. Dying a million times over for the man in the bow tie.

 _"_ It's not impossible as long as we are alive," he shakes his head. "Rory and Amy need me. So, yeah," He smiles at Owald, which has the heart inside her fluttering in a strange way, "we're gonna build a TARDIS." Her Thief heads into the valley, with her hot on his heels.

* * *

The Doctor and Oswald have put together a shell of a room with a small console in the middle. It looks pretty nice for a makeshift console room. Oswald pops up and taps a small piece of equipment with her finger. It beeps at her and she smiles.

"Bond the tube directly into the Tachyon Diverter," she instructs the Doctor.

"Yes, yes, I have actually rebuilt a TARDIS before, you know," the man grumbles, green eyes sparkling with excitement. "I know what I'm doing." Oswald turns to find him dragging a piece of wall by a rope.

"You're like a nine-year-old trying to rebuild a motorbike in his bedroom," Oswald rolls her eyes at him as her hands fiddle with the beeping box she's still carrying. "And you never read the instructions." Her voice is full of chastisement now.

"I always read the instructions!" THe Doctor is shouting now, his thin lips set into a deep pout as he glares at Oswald.

"There's a sign on my front door." Oswald croses her arms, looking up at the Doctor with stern eyes. "You have been walking past it for 700 years. What does it say?"

"That's not instructions!" The Doctor's cry is one of indigantion.

"There's an instruction at the bottom," Oswald counters. "What does it say?"

"Pull to open," the Doctor grumbles, shifting the rope to his other shoulder.

"Yes, and what do you do?" Oswald puts her hands on her hips, before lifting a finger to point at him.

"I push!"the Doctor shouts.

"Every single time," Oswald cries. "700 years. Police Box doors open out the way." She makes little doors with her hands and opens them outward.

The Doctor throws down the rope and walks over to her, looking like a nine-year-old about to throw a tantrum. "I think I've earned the right to open my front doors any way I want!" He points his finger at her face.

"Your front doors?!" Oswald cries in indignation. "Have you any idea how childish that sounds?"

The Doctor turns away and mutters, "you are not my mother!" as he walks toward the steel wall he was dragging.

Oswald crosses her arms and responds, "and you are not my child!"

The Doctor turns around and walks back toward her. "You know, since we're talking, with mouths," he makes mouthing motions with his hands while Oswald just looks on, "not really an opportunity that comes along very often, I just want to say," he tilts his head to the side, "you know, you" he points in her face, "have never been very reliable." There is almost no personal space between them and Oswald's heart is beating rapidly. The Doctor's eyes are a fierce forest green as he glares at her.

"And you have?" Oswald spits back.

"You didn't always take me where I wanted to go," the Doctor pouts at her as he turns and walks away. But what Oswald says makes him pause.

"No," Oswald says softly, her stiff shoulders slumping slightly, "but I always took you where you  _needed_  to go."

The Doctor freezes in his tracks. "You did!" He whirls around, an exuberant. "Look at us. Talking." He motions between the two of them, an excited grin on his face, green eyes alight. "Wouldn't it be amazing if we could always talk? Even when you're inside the box?"

Oswald's happy smile turns to a frown as she stares at the Doctor. "You know I'm not constructed that way," she tells him sadly. "I exist across all space and time, and you talk and run around and bring home strays." Oswald takes a step toward the Doctor and falters, her body about to collaps in a heap of red silk and dirt. But before she can hit the ground, the Doctor catches her. She clutches to the lapels of his tweed jacket and for a moment, the fabric is a plum color instead of tan.

"You OK?" the Doctor asks, his eyes misty again.

"One of the kidneys has already failed," she tells him, her hand pressing into the place where her kidney is. She shakes her head. "It doesn't matter. We need to finish assembling the console." She stands up straight and begins to walk toward the makeshift console.

"Using a console without a proper shell, the Doctor shakes his head and rubs a hand down his face. "It's not going to be safe."

"This body has about 18 minutes left to live," Oswald told him matter-of-factly, "the universe we're in will reach Absolute Zero in three hours." She shrugged and pushes him back. "Safe is relative."

The Doctor heads back to the piece he was dragging and picks up the rope, grunting slightly. "Then we need to get a move on, eh, old girl?" He grunts from the effort. Oswald smiles and skips back toward the makeshift console, a flutter in her temeporary heart.

* * *

They'd built up the TARDIS now so that it has three walls up and the Doctor is carrying a central column over his shoulder to the console.

"You'll need to install the time router," Oswald reminds him, a small smile on her face.

"How is this going to make it through the rift?" he asks as he slips the column into place. "We're almost there." Oswald watches as he check everything, nervous energy actually work for him for once. "Thrust diffuser. Er, Retro scope. Blue... thingy."

Oswald continues to shift through the junk. "Do you wonder why I chose you all those years ago?" she asks her Thief as he fiddles with the console.

"I chose you," the Doctor argued, "you were unlocked."

"Of course I was," Oswald smirks. "I wanted to see the universe, so I stole a Time Lord and I ran away." She points at him and smiles. "And you were the only one mad enough."

The Doctor joins her and looks back at the console. "Right. Perfect. Look at that. What could possibly go wrong?" Oswald watches as a small piece falls off. "That's fine, that always happens. No! Hang on! Wait!" He raced off to grab red velvet rope.

The Doctor hands Oswald one of the ropes and they latch them onto the console. "Right. OK, let's go." He rubs his hands together in excitment. "Follow that TARDIS!" The console doesn't move. Oswald sees her reflection in a mirror and begins to play with her face. She squeezes her cheeks and presses them together.

"It can't hold the charge. I can't even start it. There's no power!" He slams his hands against the console when it sputters and dies. He looks up to see Oswald playing with her face and puts a hand over the mirror. "I've got nothing!" he cries, running a hand though his hair.

"Oh, my beautiful idiot," Oswald touches his cheek with a smile and he looks up to find her brown eyes sparkling. "You have what you've always had - you've got me." Her eyes begin to glow a soft gold as she pulls her hand away. She kisses her finger, imbuing it with energy. Oswald places it against the central column. The energy circles them with a field and they dematerialize.

* * *

The makeshift TARDIS follows the path of the hijacked TARDIS to the original universe. Their makeshift TARDIS is open on top and one side so they can see the energy field around them. The ride is a little rough. The Doctor is enjoying the experience. They have to shout to be heard.

"Whoo-hoo!" the Doctor cries in excitement, throwing a hand in the air.

"We've locked onto them!" Oswald cries. "They'll have to lower the shields when I'm close enough to phase inside."

The Doctor blinks. "Can you get a message to Amy?" he shouts. "The telepathic circuits are online."

"Which one's Amy?" Oswald shouted back. "The pretty one?" She focuses on the mirror and presses her mind into the TARDIS, searching out the so called 'pretty one.'

Rory and Amy are climbing up a ladder when Rory puts a hand to his head in pain.

Oswald smiles as her telepathic vision connects with the 'pretty one' and he's definitly pretty. "Hello, Pretty!" she calls out.

"What the hell is that?" she hears the man with the big nose says.

The Doctor butts into the vision. "Don't worry. Telepathic messaging." He shouts before he realizes who Oswald has contacted. "No, that's Rory."

"You have to go to the old control room," she tells Rory. "I'm putting the route in your head." She closes her eyes and presses the route into the man's head. "When you get there... use the purple slider on the nearest panel to lower the shields.

"The pretty one!" the Doctor cries, still outraged with his TARDIS.

"You'll have about 12 seconds before the room goes into phase with the invading Matrix," she tells him in a yell. "I'll send you the passkey when you get there." She blinks. "Good luck!" The connection closes.

* * *

"How's he going to be able to take down the shields anyway?" the Doctor asked. "The House is in the control room." He looks to Oswald for answers.

"I directed him to one of the old control rooms," Oswald states as if it's nothing.

"There aren't any old control rooms," the Doctor argues incrediously. "They were all deleted or remodelled."

Oswald rolls her eyes and responds, "I archive them. For neatness." She closes her eyes for a minute. "I've got about 30 now."

"But I've only changed the desktop, what, a dozen times?" the Doctor looks at the vessel of his TARDIS incrediously.

"So far," Oswald shrugs, "yes."

"You can't archive something that hasn't happened yet!" the Doctor aruges.

" _YOU_  can't," she snarks back.

The Doctor rolls his eyes and focuses back on flying the makeshift TARDIS. "Keep going!" He presses a few buttons and jumps around. "You're doing it, you sexy thing!" He reaches over and kisses the side of Oswald's head, making the TARDIS' heart flutter even harder.

"See," Oswald beams, "you  _DO_  call me that. " She blinks at her Thief. "Is it my name?"

"You bet it's your name!" He kisses her on the mouth this time and Oswald's whole body tingles. "Whoo!" He pumps his fist into the air.

Oswald closes her eyes and presses against Rory's mind. "Crimson. Eleven. Delight. Petrichor." She tells him to message to open the old console room doors. A few minutes later, Oswald smiles at the Doctor. "They did it. Shields down!"

**New chapter. Please review! I've already got a list as to which episodes I'm thinking of doing with Clara's echoes. Suggestions welcome!**


	4. Fear Her

**Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who nor do I own this episode. This is just what I thought should have happened once I found out Clara had lived and died to save the Doctor many times. Most of this is from the transcript which I found online. I am just trying to write what I thought would happen, not trying to steal anything.**

The makeshift TARDIS closes in on the other. Inside, Oswald closes her eyes and sends Rory another message.

"We're coming through," she wanted him, her hair whipping around her face and making it hard for her to concentrate. "Get out of the way or you'll be atomized."

"Where are you coming through?" the Nose asks her. He looks worried, and he should be.

"I don't know," Oswald spits angrily, trying to concentrate really hard on the message and helping to fly the makeshift TARDIS at the same time. She feels like she's being stretched in a million directions at the same time.

"Oh, great," Rory rolls his eyes. "Thanks!" Oswald just smiles at him and disconnects.

"It's not going to hold!" the brunette shouts, her eyes wide and pained as she focuses on her Thief. Their makeshift TARDIS shudders as it materializes by the ramp. Both the Doctor and Oswald fall on impact. It reminds Oswald of all of the times he's landed her roughly.

"Doctor!" the red head, Amy, smiles at the man in tweed. The Doctor gets up and hugs her. Oswald stands slowly, her body shaking with the effort. She knows this body won't last long, but it makes her hurt deep inside her mainframe.

"Not good," she comments weakly, legs shaking badly as she tries to take a step. "Not good at all." The Doctor shoots her a worried look as he helps her sit down. She frowns at her legs, still slightly covered by her raggedy red dress. "How do you walk around in these things?" Her nose scrunches up in disgust and the Doctor's hearts flutter.

"We're not quite there yet..." he runs a soft hand though her hair to reassure her, "just hold on." He stands slightly, but keeps his hold on her hand. "Amy, this is..." He smiles widely. "Well, she's my TARDIS. Except she's a woman." If it's possible, his smile gets even wider. Oswald rolls her eyes at the green eyed man. "She's a woman, and she's my TARDIS."

"She's the TARDIS?!" Amy looks from the brunette to the Doctor and back.

"And she's a woman," the Doctor nods enthusiastically. "She's a woman and she's the TARDIS." He does a tiny little jig in place next to Oswald.

"Did you wish really hard?" Amy asks with a smirk, eyes sparkling with mirth.

"Shut up!" the Doctor lets go of Oswald's hand to point and glare at his red head best friend. "Not like that."

"Hello. I'm..." she blinks up at Amy and Rory and smiles as well, "Sexy."

"Oh!" Rory grunts out a laugh.

"Still," the Doctor glares at the couple, "shut up."

Oswald doesn't play attention to much of the conversation going on. She hears Amy gag and the Doctor speaking rapidly to the entity that has stolen her home from her. All she can focus on right now is reserving her energy.

Suddenly, the she's clutching at a bar on the side of the console. She can feel her muscles screaming and there are tears in her eyes from the pain. As soon as it started, the gravity is back and the brunette falls to the floor, clutching her stomach. She blinks back tears and finds Rory standing over her, big nose and all.

Like with the gravity, there is suddenly a huge loss of air as if House is sucking the air from the room. Rory crouches over her and she sends him a weak smile, even as she's chocking.

The air is back as the Doctor starts speaking of things just outside of Oswald's deteriorating body's hearing range. She struggles to stay conscious. If she dies here, so does the Doctor and his companions.

Suddenly, something flashes though her mind and she winces. She leans up and grabs at Rory's hand. His eyes widen and he reaches down to feel her forehead. His hands feel nice against her skin.

"Doctor, she's burning up," Rory's voice is the only she can hear. "She's asking for water." Oswald shakes her head, trying to grab at Rory's jacket so he can understand her better when she speaks.

"Hey," the Doctor kneels and takes Oswald's hand. His hands are soft against her face as he strokes it. "Hang in there, old girl," he whispers and she zeros in on his green eyes, soft as new grass. "Not long now. It'll be over soon." He presses a kiss to her forehead and she breaths out against his cheek, a small smile on her face.

"I always liked it when you call me..." she lets out a stuttering breath, "old girl."

The last thing Oswald hears before fading out of consciousness is House telling all of them goodbye.

* * *

The four of them materialize in the console room. Oswald's body collapses on the cool glass floor and she presses a cheek to it, the other is cradeled in Rory's hand as he presses two fingers to her neck.

She reaches up to bring him closer again, whispering over and over the words he must remember.

Rory scowls at the words and whispers back, "I don't understand." He shakes his head. "There isn't a forest in here."

The Doctor begins to clap and she focuses in on what he's saying, even as her mind is slowly slipping away. He pulls Amy up and makes her clap with him, pretending to congratulate House on his beautiful defeat. But, because Oswald knows her Thief so well, she knows he's got something else up her sleeve. And if he'd just grab her a little more time, she can let this body pass peacefully and take back her home.

"Yep, you've defeated us, me and my lovely friends here at last but definitely not least the TARDIS Matrix herself." He looks at her with such a look of sadness, but she tries to project as much peace and softness into her connection with him that he will understand that she's ready. "That a living consciousness you ripped out of this very control room and locked up into a human body and look at her!" He gestures to Oswald. The last thing she hears through their connection before it goes black is the word 'sorry' echoing over and over again.

"Doctor, she's stopped breathing," Rory speaks up. Somewhere deep inside Oswald, she cries for the girl this body used to be, but at the same time, there are now a few particles attached to the TARDIS heart.

She keeps listening through her connection with the Doctor.

"No. It's never enough," the Doctor growls, his eyes almost a scary shade of green. "You forced the TARDIS into a body so she'd burn out safely a very long way away from this control room. A flesh body can't hold the TARDIS Matrix and live. Look at her body, House." He gestures to the prone body of Oswald lying on the floor of the console room, his hearts clenching in sadness.

"And you think I should mourn her?" House asks in a snide tone.

"No," the Doctor smiles, "I think you should be very, very careful about what you let back into this control room." He smiles sadly and Oswald knows it is time. She lets the energy inside her go.

**Yet another chapter. Only one more to go! The two-part echo Clara episodes are going to have more chapters, but will take longer to write. Thanks so much and please review!**


	5. Oswald for the Win! Oswin!

**Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who nor do I own this episode. This is just what I thought should have happened once I found out Clara had lived and died to save the Doctor many times. Most of this is from the transcript which I found online. I am just trying to write what I thought would happen, not trying to steal anything.**

"You took her from her home," the Doctor shouts, his voice angry but his eyes alight with passion. "But now she's back in the box again and she's free!" Oswald can feel the energy swirling throughout the ship, seeking out any piece of House that she can.

The energy streams throughout the room, changing the green light to golden.

"No! Doctor, stop this!" Oswald growls within her mainframe, pulling at each particle of House that she can, pulling him apart piece by piece. "OW! Stop this now!"

"Oh, look at my girl, look at her go!" Oswald shudders to her very core at his words and they make her stronger. She expands through the corridors, digging deep. Past the room of Bad Wolf, past the Library, past the Doctor's own room, the only permanent, can't be removed, rooms. "Bigger on the inside! You see, House?"

"Make it stop!" House cries inside and out, trying to fight Oswald off, warding off gold with green. But gold is a beautiful strong color and Oswald pushes him back, packing him into a tiny, painful ball of green energy.

"That's your problem," the Doctor raises both his hands at the fading green of the ship, knowing his girl is in there fighting off the demon within her walls. "Size of a planet, but inside you're just so small!"

"Make it stop!" he cries from the tiny ball, his voice now louder than his actions. She watches as the form of a tiny man runs from her small yet powerful hands, her eyes bright and gold as she chases him toward the entrance of her mainframe.

"Finish him off, girl," the Doctor smiles yet there is sadness inside him he can feel.

Oswald rushes at the small man and shatters him with one swift kick. The green scatters to all the corners of the universe, never to come together again. She beams and wipes her hands on the bottom of her dress, which is now a beautiful golden color with small bits of blue every few inches of fabric. Her eyes are golden and her hair sparkled. But before she goes back into her temporal casing, she has one more thing to say.

* * *

Oswald projects a hologram of herself onto the stairs of the TARDIS. Her dress is no longer ripped, but golden and it shines brightly within the dim light of the console room. She has yet to fully reinstall herself so there is still darkness within her.

"Doctor, are you there?" She looks around for him, only to see him walk over to her from behind the central console. "It's so very dark in here."

"I'm here," the Doctor whispers, his eyes full of unshed tears.

"I've been looking for a word," she tells him, reminding him of what she'd told him before. "A big, complicated word, but so sad." She reaches out and touches his hand. "I've found it now."

"What word?" her Thief asks, his voice cracking.

"Alive," she whispers the word, a tear sliding down her cheek. "I'm  _alive_."

"Alive isn't sad," the Doctor argues with a sad smile.

"It's sad when it's over," Oswald smiles right back at him, his own sadness mirrored on her face. "I'll always be here, but this is when we  _talked_ , and now even that has come to an end." She sniffles and her voice wavers before it becomes strong again. "There's something I didn't get to say to you."

"Goodbye?" A tear slides down her Thief's cheek.

"No," Oswald chuckles, a watery smile on her face. "I just wanted to say hello." Oswald is full on beaming although tears are sliding down her cheek. "Hello, Doctor. It's so very, very nice to meet you."

"Please," the Doctor chokes on his words. "I don't want you to. Please."

"We shall meet again, my Thief," Oswald cups his cheek, rising on her tiptoes to look deeply into his bright grass green eyes. "After loss and sorrow there will be a girl who will do the impossible." She presses a soft kiss to the Doctor's lips, letting the warmth that is inside her linger for a few more moments.

"Run," she speaks, her eyes blurry for a moment, "run you clever boy." She's still cupping his cheeks as she slowly dematerializes. Her last few words are like a whisper on the wind. "And remember me…"

"Where?" the Doctor chokes on his tears before he wipes them away. He realizes that she's told him something crucial. He will see her again. An impossible girl would lead him back to the woman who became his TARDIS.

The Doctor tinkers with the TARDIS, putting more protection inside the mainframe that will keep her from being ripped from her home again. Amy and Rory speak to him for a time about a new room without bunk beds— "why wouldn't you want bunk beds. It's a bed…with a ladder"— but he gives in and gives them what they want. He stays down in his swing under the console and smiles sadly. The Doctor wipes down the metal of the console and sniffs proudly at his work.

"Are you there? Can you hear me?" He pauses, waiting for an answer that will never come. "Oh, I'm a silly old…" He chuckled. "Okay. The Eye of Orion, or wherever we need to go."

Oswald, still buried inside the console behind the walls and walls of protection, chuckles as well, a hinge smile on her face as she flicks a lever with a wave of her hand.

She watches her Thief with gold in her eyes as he dances around the console room, throwing in the towel and doing his little jig. "Ha ha!" He punches the air. "Whoo hoo."

And deep down, Oswald knows that a girl will come along. An impossibility she created when she was Bad Wolf. A girl born to save the Doctor with her face and her charm and her bravery. But she is jealous that this girl with her face will be able to hug and kiss and make love to the Doctor. She will wear her face and fall in love with the man that needs the most love in the universe.

And she  _hates_  Clara Oswald for that.

**Last chapter! And in each of the stories, right before the echo fades, she will somehow remember Clara Oswald, the original. But all the echoes feelings will be different. ;D**


End file.
